Alabama

Alabama All Star Shaun Hamilton (32) of Carver High School-Montgomery and Alabama All Star Keith Holcombe (42) of Hillcrest High School-Tuscaloosa practice for the AHSAA Alabama-Mississippi All Star game Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2013, at Faulkner University in Montgomery, Ala. (Julie Bennett/jbennett@al.com)

TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- Faxes
have started rolling into Alabama's Signing Day headquarters, and
AL.com's beat writers are publishing profiles of each signee as Crimson Tide
coach Nick Saban announces the next prize in Alabama's 2014 signing
class.

Keith Holcombe

School: Hillcrest-Tuscaloosa

Position: Outside linebacker

Height, Weight: 6-foot-4, 210 pounds

247Sports composite ranking:
Four-star recruit who is considered to be the No. 27 athlete in the 2014 class. He's 11th among players from the state of Alabama and 281st overall.

Other schools: Mississippi State, Vanderbilt

How he fits into Alabama's plans:
It could go two ways for Holcombe, who admitted as recently as last month that he didn't know which position he'd be playing for Alabama. If his attempt to gain weight goes as planned and the Crimson Tide thinks he can get big enough to play linebacker, he'll likely land at the position he played in high school. If he sticks at 210 or so, a move to safety -- much like Vinnie Sunseri -- could be in the cards. Either way, his athleticism will be welcome on an Alabama defense looking to get faster and better-equipped to stop uptempo offenses.

Projection for 2014: Though he might not have a clear-cut fit position-wise on Alabama's defense, a player with Holcombe's size and speed is always valued on special teams. If he's not able to crack into the defensive rotation, a role similar to the one held by Sunseri and Trey DePriest in their early years could be in the cards.